1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, generally, to an apparatus adapted for the pickup, transfer, and the delivery of articles. More particularly, the invention relates to a rotary transfer apparatus with an offset cam mechanism adapted for enabling an extended in-line or near in-line motion at selected points of pickup and delivery, as well as providing non-identical motion of the article at other selected points of the article path.
2. Background Information
It is both necessary and desirable in manufacturing, assembly and packaging operations to pickup, transfer and deliver articles of various shapes and dimensions in a reliable, precise and high speed manner. A rotary transfer apparatus consistently reaches the desired pick and place result, although other types of such devices have been developed. A rotary transfer apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,643,633, which is assigned to Applicants' assignee and is herein incorporated by reference.
Known apparatus and methods for picking, transferring and placing articles are believed to have significant limitations and shortcomings. For example, due to the many configurations of manufacturing equipment and the varying shapes and sizes of the articles produced and/or processed, it is difficult to precisely and reliably pickup, transfer and place these articles without damaging them. Deeply nested articles and articles with relatively long product tails pose a particular problem. A long stem is desirable for deeply nested articles in order to extend into and securely contact the articles. Additionally, both deeply nested articles and articles with long product tails cannot be rotated too quickly near the apex points of pickup and delivery, or else they will contact and possibly damage each other. Thus it is desirable for a rotary transfer apparatus to have both a long stem and an extended in-line motion at the apex points of placement and delivery. To solve this problem, a rotary transfer apparatus with an in-line cam mechanism is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,242, which is assigned to Applicants' assignee and is incorporated by reference.
This technology is believed to have significant limitations and shortcomings, including, but not limited to, that the several stops or positions of the machines are identical or substantially similar. It is frequently desirable and/or necessary to perform more than one article handling operation with a single rotary transfer apparatus. For example, at one apex point, an article is picked up, at a second apex point, the article is swiped across a bar code reader, and at a third apex point the article is placed on a stack or on a conveyor. At the picking and placing apexes, it is desirable to have extended in-line motion, as described above, while at the swiping apex, an out-of-line, sweeping motion of the article is required to read the bar code. An advancing cam mechanism is illustrated for a non-secondary motion rotary transfer apparatus in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,843, which is assigned to Applicants' assignee and is hereby incorporated by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 6,273,242 disclosed combining this advancing cam mechanism with a secondary motion rotary transfer apparatus; however, the resulting apparatus is highly complex.
The rotary transfer apparatus of the present invention is believed to constitute an improvement over existing technology. An offset cam mechanism is added to the secondary motion of a rotary transfer apparatus in order to provide an apparatus with an extended in-line or near in-line motion at selected points of pickup and placement, as well as providing non-identical motion of the article at other selected article path apexes. The extended in-line motion promotes precise contact between the transfer mechanism and the articles and further enables the transfer apparatus to successfully pick and place both deeply nested articles and articles with relatively long product tails, while the non-identical motion provides for performing other non-identical operations on the article.
This invention provides a rotary pick and place machine which is believed to fulfill the need and to constitute an improvement over the background technology.
All US patents and patent applications and all other published documents mentioned anywhere in this application are incorporated by reference in their entirety.